British TV importer Acorn Media Group has volunteered for the streaming video revolution, offering U.K. titles such as "Foyle's War," "Upstairs Downstairs" and "Agatha Christie's Poirot." The new U.S. "Acorn TV" runs on an premium (paid) model at $25 a year. Acorn is running a free trial of the paid streaming platform through Aug. 31. … [Read more...]
Archives for July 2011
‘Beauty and the Beast’: HD visions from 1946
French critics of 1946 were so wary of "La Belle et la bete" that its director decided to begin the film with a plea to his audience: "Children believe what we tell them," Jean Cocteau wrote across the screen. "I ask of you a little of this childlike simplicity." Children believed in the fairy tale of "Beauty and the Beast," but what were they … [Read more...]
Viewing sessions hit a peak
U.S. online video users engaged in 6.2 billion viewing sessions in the past month, hitting an all-time high. About 172 million people watched online video in June, good for an average of 16.8 hours per viewer, according to comScore. Almost 86 percent of Internet users in the U.S. watched at least one video. "Google Sites" (YouTube) and Vevo … [Read more...]
Netflix pricing soars
Netflix has announced a stinging price increase, with the majority of subscribers about to see their bills go up by as much as $6 a month. Someone paying $11.99 a month for streaming and DVDs/Blu-rays will now fork over $17.99. The Netflix corporate line goes something like this: The costs of mail-rental DVDs and Blu-rays were never … [Read more...]
YouTube’s pretty Panda
YouTube has transformed itself -- for a while, anyway -- with an optional redesign dubbed Cosmic Panda. Users of the uber online video site are invited to check out the new look via this redesign portal. It'll affect most of your YouTube pages until you change back. The channel pages look a lot better, but the most dramatic and most welcome … [Read more...]